Standards such as the IEC 297-2 standard have for several decades defined the mechanical structure of cabinets made up of bays and trays containing cards. More recently, more specific standards for this equipment have been proposed, such as for telecommunication network cabinets. For example, this is true of the ATCA (Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture) standard, which defines both mechanical parameters and some cabinet control elements. These standards were introduced to enable interoperability and a reduction in manufacturing costs compared to a prior situation whereby each manufacturer designed its cabinets independent of any standard. The definition of cabinet standards currently affects a large variety of equipment such as communication network elements and data centers, whether they are for civilian, military, or research applications, to give a few examples.